Countries that produce too much music
It might seem to some to be a stretch to compare Black Metal and Reggae, but both are part of a phenomena that their country of origin produces far too much influential music when you look at the proportion of music created per capita.
I was never brought up to listen to or enjoy Reggae, a fact that surprised me when I finally started to dig into this genre and discovered how much seminal music came out of Jamaica during the same period as the supposedly "classic rock" that I was instead raised on.
Recently I have been pounding the 3 CD collection Big Youth - Natty Universal Dread from Blood and Fire who have for many years consistently been reissuing absolute gems many of which never originally received much exposure outside of their native Jamaica.
One of the deepest joys for me in Jamaican music is how the same riddim gets reused, reworked and recycled over and over again. This is the origin of sampling, of rap music and so much more.
One riddim that has really got me going the past week is Strange Things, originally recorded by John Holt. John is more known as a bit of a crooner but this is a real dark gem. The lyrics are thought provoking and the moody sparseness of the riddim is as powerful as it's solid groove.
In his trademark style, Big Youth had too much to say that he could not just version this riddim once. He really works the space and flow of the original in "Miss Lou Ring A Ding" bringing out all the sorrow and beauty into something that is much stronger than it's constituents. Whereas on "Same Something" hand percussion draws out the spacey dub element of the original groove.
I'm keen to hear other re-interpretations of this great riddim, John Holt is better known for his time with rock steady group the Paragons, who are most famous for their very frequently covered "The Tide Is High" but who also originally performed "Wear you to the ball" which was versioned so expertly by U-Roy in 1969.
In my mind this riddim ranks up there with the Fisherman riddim by the Congoes as both a great riddim and an amazing original track.
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I've tried. I've tried SO hard. But it's not happening. Reggae still sucks balls with a very open mouth :P
Mindi, your way with words is astounding.
Believe me, I get where you are coming from. However the music of Jamaica has many facets and extends well beyond the typical rockers sound that was brought to worldwide appeal in the mid 70s by Bob Marley.
It puzzles me that you can't get into dub as it is one of the progenitors of much of the electronic music you know and love. However I understand your preference for tight consise loops is completely at odds with dub's more free-form approach.
I'm not saying I love all of what you would term reggae music. Last night I was listening to some Alton Ellis, rocksteady from the early 60s. I can honestly admit it was too happy for me, but the quality of his voice and the performance kept me listening.
lol - well you know me, I'm never one to hide what I really think ;)
I respect reggae for what it is, which is a great cultural expression, and nothing is wrong with that... I just cant get into it, try as I might.
Yeah the whole tight loops thing for electronica has always been important. I dont know why, but I've always been attracted to concise structure, even with architecture for example, and yet again perhaps with Bach as another example. Clean lines, rigidity have always held my attention, albeit in recent years I have strayed a little more from it than usual.
Still, within chaos, I prefer an element of linearity. A paradoxical existence is always one which changes and adjusts you could say...
So.. are you sure you were raised solely in a classic rock genre?
I don't seem to remember it being so.. ;)
classic rock is just a general term of course I was exposed to a lot more than that my point is that I did not get much if any exposure to the other styles of music that were influential in the late 60s and through the 70s